88TH PLENARY SESSION

Thank you, Chairman.  I would like to welcome Commissioner Wallström to the Forum and to thank her for her talk.  I think the title of her address today Giving more power to the people is very relevant and timely.  Because while in the debates about the Lisbon Treaty there is a recognition that there are very welcome provisions within the Treaty that do promote much greater democratisation of the Union ‑ things like the Citizen’s Initiative, the formal role for national parliaments in monitoring the principle of subsidiarity, the greater powers given to the directly elected European Parliament. At the same time there are still, even amongst those who support the Treaty and are very supportive of the European Union, concerns about what is called the legitimacy question of the Union which really is about the fact that citizens, possibly because of the way in which the European Union has been constructed by States, the means of parliamentary ratification that have been used to a large extent amongst many of the Member States to ratify the various treaties that have given rise to the European Union, that there are concerns that the European Union institutions may have, be seen to have authority but lack the consent of the people.  I think this was possibly unavoidable in terms of the way that the European Union was constructed.  The Treaty speaks of a union of States and of peoples.  I think possibly the emphasis in the European Union over the years needs to be to make it much more a union of peoples as well as a union of States.  We can see even in the way that some of the processes have worked, the legislative process, for example, that the interests of States certainly were looked after, but I think the citizens felt very shut out from that process.  If we just take the Council of Ministers meeting and legislating behind closed doors, the fact that ministers themselves went from national parliaments without any real discussion about important decisions, legislative decisions, they were going to make in the Council of Ministers; no mandate. Only a few parliaments, I think, amongst the Member States are in a position to mandate their ministers to take certain positions in relation to upcoming legislative decisions.  So I think these kind of issues need to be taken on board by the Union. 

I know the Lisbon Treaty now will give quite an influential role to national parliaments and that is very welcome.  The Council of Ministers will be meeting in public when it is legislating.  Perhaps there is a role for the European Commission as well.  It is a powerful institution and because of the power of initiative it has perhaps Commissioners could become a little bit more visible to the citizens Europe. Very often the big legislative initiatives, the Services Directive, just to take one example, are years in preparation before they are actually put to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament for final decision.  Perhaps Commissioners could address national parliaments where the formulation of the legislation is happening and provoke more of a national debate about the kind of legislation that is being looked at and prepared by both the Commission and the other European institutions. 

Finally, the issue of parliamentary democracies ‑‑ and I know the Lisbon Treaty says that the Union is based on representative democracy.  But I think there is a challenge here because it does seem that there is a shift in paradigms from representative democracy to much more participatory democracy and perhaps that is something that the Union needs to factor in to create much more direct links with citizens, between the European institutions and the citizens is an important challenge for the Union to take on. 

I know the Commissioner has been involved in a website which I would just like to mention because it is a very welcome one called “Road to Copenhagen 2009″.  It is an interactive website where NGOs, parliamentarians and individual citizens could input into the development of a communiqué which was basically going to be used by the lead negotiators in the conference on climate change in Bali and which would be continued.  I think those kind of initiatives are very progressive and certainly I’d love to see more of those being used by the institutions of the Union.  Thank you. 

88th plenary session of the National Forum on Europe • St Patrick’s Hall • Dublin Castle • Dublin 2 • 28 February 2008
Vice-President of the European Commission Margot Wallström addressed the theme ”the Treaty of Lisbon: giving more power to the people.”

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National Forum on Europe by Deirdre